Why doesnt Ireland have a proper gardening show ?

HotWaterCylinder

The thread on supergarden got me thinking.

Scotland have beachgrove, England have Gardeners world (Australia too).

We get the absolute scutter that is supergarden?

Surly RTE could put together something seasonal like GW.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

When rte have had a show recently, it always seems to be a competition. Never just for the love of gardening. That super garden show is ridiculous in so many ways.

Guildenstern

I guess they have to put their edge on it, to make it different, so hence the competition. The BBC will do for me.

looksee

If you are working in an environment where everything has to be high speed, high pressure, living in Dublin, don't stop peddling, then turning the joy of a garden into a short term competition probably makes sense. And for the people with no notion of waiting for things to grow, watching the seasons, tending plants, being philosophical about failures, slowly building a garden to suit current needs, this is the kind of thing that they want. Instant satisfaction.

I can look at my own garden that we have been rescuing for about 3 years and either see what has still to be done, and the dodgy bits that have been done but temporarily abandoned while different bits are rescued, or I can see what has been achieved, and enjoy it. The latter way changes mindset and is much the most satisfactory.

Glaceon

They used to have one called Greenfingers about 30 years ago but I'm not sure how long it lasted.

standardg60

Good old Greenfingers with Gerry Daly.

There's always been variations of gardening programs since over the years.

Why Supergarden? Cos it doesn't cost RTE anything, it's just one big long ad for the sponsors. There's always a wall to be painted, paving to be supplied by kilsaran, and the obligatory trip to Woodies, not to mention the continuous references to Bloom.

The actual gardens, most of which would be overgrown disasters within a couple of years, are just mediums to achieve the real objective.

I would love to know how a lot of them look now. Diarmuid Gavin had a show here similar to the one he did in England years ago too. I know of one of them which featured a 'skywalk' in the trees that subsequently had to be completely removed because it was unsafe, but you never hear about this stuff.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058297396/why-doesnt-ireland-have-a-proper-gardening-show

RTÉ have chosen that it should not produce any TV of any kind. TG4 has Garraí Glas.

RTÉ would want the Royal Horticultural Society Of Ireland, GIY, Bord Bia, SFI and others to fund such a show. It can even manage a daytime show during the Summer.

It is small programmes like this that don't get made because RTÉ can't be bothered.

RoTelly

We need to get NK to represent a few gardeners :)

pauly58

I used to love Room Outside with Gerry Daly, years ago now.

z80CPU

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058297396/why-doesnt-ireland-have-a-proper-gardening-show

For the same reasons Ireland doesn't have a proper

Internationally acclaimed Food & Drink Show.

This will probably be deleted by mods, but

The Big Grill 2022....

If you attended... Join a long queue.

When you get your food eat it asap and then get out!

z80CPU

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120626163#Comment_120626163

Me too

They even screened a garden program where the production team had made this completely newfangled heath Robinson contraption with a go Pro attached which would'nt look strange in a Robin Williams movie where he's a dentist demonstrating his dentist chair.

This things was used to film an anthill.

Great program, although I could offer a better solution at a fraction of the cost of it

EDIT 8.02pm I see Diarmúid Gavin who designed that 'Hanging Garden' that nobody liked. This Hurt his feelings. The craethur.

RoTelly

You'd have thought that one of the executives would have got their garden done while getting a crew to film a gardening show!

ZookeeperDub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058297396/why-doesnt-ireland-have-a-proper-gardening-show

Is it not Bloom?

z80CPU

RTÉ or Virgin Media will require that at least [u]one[/u] Celebrity Personality that is well known in Irish Media in general is [u] guaranteed to get a publicity boost out of it when they are paired with such a show.[/u] If this guarantee cannot be assured, then no gardening show.

magicbastarder

i think 'the wild gardener' presented by colin stafford johnson was a joint RTE & BBC production - but it certainly wasn't a gardening show in the sense people are talking about here (and as he explained in it, his father was ireland's first TV gardener).

Furze99

The culture of recreational gardening & allotments etc is a century or two older over in England in particular. It was one consequence of their industrial revolution and the migration of people into cities and urban areas generally. We were more of an agrarian society up to about 50-60 years ago. It's a foreign idea to RTE.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120946338#Comment_120946338

Gerry Daly would disagree with you. RTÉ always had a summer gardening show in the 80s and 90s and even into the 2000s.

As pointed out you need a "celeb name", you need a "format" and it needs to be "co-produced" with another state body such as Healthy Ireland, Bord Bia AND/OR an "ngo" like GYI, it will also need a sponsor and some product placement.

What is foreign to RTÉ is making content.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120948901#Comment_120948901

One swallow never made a summer though. Gerry was a bit of an outlier.

I remember RTE in the 1980s - it was a diet of GAA, horse racing, dog racing, LLS, local drama like Glenroe etc. There were no RTE staff involved in the likes of gardening, not part of the culture.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120948990#Comment_120948990

Local Drama like Glenroe.... you mean just Glenroe, with a few "outlier" dramas in the early 80s co-prod with C4, and Fair City toward the end of the decade.

Your right RTÉ had one gardening show and a gardening slot on Live At 3/PM live.

Seems now RTÉ can't even do one gardening show unless it meet the requirements I have outlined above.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058297396/why-doesnt-ireland-have-a-proper-gardening-show

I would say because Noel kelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120948990#Comment_120948990

There was also Helen Dillon & The late Dermot O’Neill as TV gardeners. Then also Diarmuid Gavin. But now we are left with dumbed down competition style shows that don’t really discuss the plants, or discuss pros and cons of different landscape materials from a practical point of view, or little to help the consumer.

AmpMan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120945594#Comment_120945594

Bloom is a joke & a rip off

Bassfish

They're waiting for Peter O' Mahony to retire from rugby before giving him his own show 😏

Hippodrome Song Owl

I used to watch the show with Dermot O'Neill (RIP) and Helen Dillon as a teen, even though we didn't have a garden. Always enjoyed it. Loved it. The Garden Show I think it was.

They had another one in the past few years partnered with GIY about growing food, which was passable. Grow, Cook, Eat.

Would love to see a show like Gardener's World though. I'm a complete beginner but have always loved it. Monty Don is mesmerising!

Supergarden is a dreadful show. But I would have thought a basic traditional garden show wouldn't be particularly expensive to produce.

secman

It's just pure bad planning and lack of foresight really. Opw have plenty of gardeners looking after state Gardens, such as Kilmacuddery, the gardens are there, the gardeners are there, a film crew is all it takes. Gardeners World is basically Monty tending to his own garden and then they throw in fillers from Joe soap gardeners sending in videos.

hamburgham

I love Gardener’s World so much. Wish there was some sort of online library where I could view previous episodes. Learn so much from it.

secman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120970701#Comment_120970701

Go to YouTube and you can find back episodes, we resort to YouTube if we miss an episode for some obscure reason.